DevOps Mailer

DevOps Mailer is an Azure DevOps extension task that sends SMTP email from pipeline jobs.
Subject and body support Handlebars templating with pipeline variables and custom JSON context.

Recent Changes

• Added optional cc and bcc recipients.
• Added optional attachments input (one file path per line, task fails if missing).
• Replaced isBodyHtml with contentFormat (text, html, markdown).
• Markdown content now renders to HTML automatically before send.
• Escaped newline sequences in rendered content are normalized (\n, `r`n` -> real newlines).
• Added reusable template example at templates/simple.hbs.

What You Get

• Send email to one or many recipients.
• Add CC and BCC recipients.
• Attach files to outgoing email.
• Use plain text or HTML body.
• Use markdown body (rendered as HTML).
• Use Handlebars templates in subject and body.
• Inject custom data with templateContext.
• Use secure SMTP credentials from pipeline secret variables.

Install And Use In Pipeline

1. Publish/install extension .vsix in your Azure DevOps organization.
2. Add task devops-mailer@0 to YAML pipeline.
3. Store SMTP username/password in variable group or secret pipeline variables.

steps:
  - task: devops-mailer@0
    displayName: Send deployment email
    inputs:
      title: Production deploy build {{variables.BUILD_BUILDNUMBER}}
      to: |
        dev1@example.com
        dev2@example.com
      cc: qa@example.com
      bcc: audit@example.com
      fromAddress: noreply@example.com
      attachments: |
        $(Build.SourcesDirectory)/artifacts/release-notes.md
      subject: "[{{variables.BUILD_SOURCEBRANCHNAME}}] {{title}} #{{variables.BUILD_BUILDNUMBER}}"
      content: |
        Hello team,

        Build number: {{variables.BUILD_BUILDNUMBER}}
        Status: {{variables.AGENT_JOBSTATUS}}
        Release environment: {{environment}}
      isBodyHtml: false
      templateContext: |
        {
          "environment": "production"
        }
      contentFormat: text
      smtpHost: smtp.example.com
      smtpPort: 587
      smtpSecure: false
      smtpUsername: $(smtp.user)
      smtpPassword: $(smtp.password)
      smtpIgnoreTLS: false
      smtpRequireTLS: true

HTML Example

steps:
  - task: devops-mailer@0
    displayName: Send HTML summary
    inputs:
      title: "Build {{variables.BUILD_BUILDNUMBER}}"
      to: team@example.com
      fromAddress: noreply@example.com
      subject: "{{title}} - {{variables.AGENT_JOBSTATUS}}"
      content: |
        <h2>{{title}}</h2>
        <p>Branch: <b>{{variables.BUILD_SOURCEBRANCHNAME}}</b></p>
        <p>Status: <b>{{variables.AGENT_JOBSTATUS}}</b></p>
      contentFormat: html
      templateContext: "{}"
      smtpHost: smtp.example.com
      smtpPort: 587
      smtpSecure: false
      smtpUsername: $(smtp.user)
      smtpPassword: $(smtp.password)
      smtpIgnoreTLS: false
      smtpRequireTLS: true

Markdown Example

steps:
  - task: devops-mailer@0
    displayName: Send markdown summary
    inputs:
      title: "Release {{variables.BUILD_BUILDNUMBER}}"
      to: team@example.com
      fromAddress: noreply@example.com
      subject: "{{title}}"
      content: |
        ## Deployment
        - Branch: **{{variables.BUILD_SOURCEBRANCHNAME}}**
        - Status: **{{variables.AGENT_JOBSTATUS}}**
      contentFormat: markdown
      templateContext: "{}"
      smtpHost: smtp.example.com
      smtpPort: 587
      smtpSecure: false
      smtpUsername: $(smtp.user)
      smtpPassword: $(smtp.password)
      smtpIgnoreTLS: false
      smtpRequireTLS: true

Template Variables

Inside subject and content templates:

• {{title}} from task input.
• {{variables.BUILD_BUILDNUMBER}} flat pipeline env variable.
• {{pipeline.Build.BuildNumber}} nested pipeline access.
• {{pipelineVariables.Build.BuildNumber}} alias for nested pipeline access.
• {{outputVariables.MY_TASK_MY_OUTPUT}} output-like env variable access.
• {{outputPipelineVariables.my.task.my.output}} nested output-like env variable access.
• {{env.SYSTEM_TEAMPROJECT}} raw environment variable access.
• {{envPipeline.system.teamproject}} nested environment variable access.
• any key from JSON in templateContext.

Content Newline Normalization

Rendered content normalizes escaped newline sequences and platform line endings:

• PowerShell-style escaped newlines (\n, `r`n) become real \n`.
• Windows and classic Mac line endings are normalized to \n.

SMTP Notes

• Use smtpSecure: true for implicit TLS (usually port 465).
• Use smtpSecure: false + smtpRequireTLS: true for STARTTLS (usually port 587).
• Keep smtpPassword in secret variable, never plain text in YAML.

Build Extension Locally

bun run build:task
bun run build:release
bun run package:extension

• Build output task script: dist/tasks/devops-mailer/index.js
• Packaged extension output: release/*.vsix